Bloody Verdict of Verden

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The Bloody Verdict of Verden (from German Blutgericht) was an alleged massacre of Saxons in 782 near the present town of Verden in Lower Saxony (Germany), ordered by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars.

[edit] History

Some 4,500 Saxon leaders are said to have been beheaded for practicing paganism after having officially, albeit under duress, converted to Christianity and undergone baptism. The river Aller was said to have been flowing red with their blood. Charlemagne's motives were to demonstrate his overlordship and the severity of punishment for rebellion.

Today, the veracity of this event is questioned in some quarters: there may have been a misspelling in the original source by which the Latin delocabat (meaning exiled or displaced) erroneously became decollabat (meaning beheaded). Archeological evidence for the massacre has not been found, although the bodies of the slain could have been buried elsewhere by their next-of-kin. The first challenge to the historical records of the massacre was apparently published by Karl Bauer in 1937 in his »Die Quellen für das sogenannte Blutbad von Verden« (Münster, 1937). Since then, this view has been repeatedly endorsed by ecclesiastical circles who wish to see Charlemagne's role in the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity without blemish.

Whether there was a massacre or merely a mass banishment, the effect was that the Saxons lost virtually their entire tribal leadership and were henceforth largely governed by Frankish counts installed by Charlemagne. Their leader, duke Widukind, had escaped to his in-laws in Denmark, but soon returned, submitted to Charlemagne and accepted baptism.

[edit] Legacy

In 1935, the Third Reich assembled the Sachsenhain (Saxon Grove), consisting of about 1,000 large stones in Verden, to commemorate the event. The site today belongs to the youth organization of the Protestant Church and is accessible to the public.